Lucknow Super Giants defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets on Sunday thanks to Mohammed Shami’s bowling figures of 2/9 and captain Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten 68.
Pacer Shami’s brilliant opening spell had SRH struggling at 26/4 before the home team reached 156/9 at the Uppal stadium.
Before the left-handed Pant maintained composure and brought the team home with one ball remaining for their first victory of the season in two games, LSG got off to a bright start but faltered in the middle part.
LSG lost early wickets, including impact substitute Ayush Badoni, who was stumped for 12, and Nicholas Pooran, who was run out for one, despite Aiden Markram’s 45 from 27 balls setting up the chase.
Wicketkeeper-batter Pant smashed three fours, including the winning boundary off Jaydev Unadkat, when 9 were needed off the final over.
Shami starred with the ball after dismissing SRH dangerous openers Abhishek Sharma for a duck and Travis Head for 7 on consecutive balls in his opening two overs. On the final delivery of his opening over, he had Sharma caught at short third man, and on the opening ball of his second over, he had Head caught at mid-off.
Despite his steady domestic performances, India’s seasoned pacer Shami, who has 462 international wickets across three formats, has been overlooked by national selectors. Shami, 35, last represented India in the 2025 ODI Champions Trophy final in Dubai.
After captain Ishan Kishan was bowled for 1, Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy fought back, and England’s Liam Livingstone escaped the hat-trick but shortly fell for 14.
Reddy struck 56 off 33 balls and Klaasen top-scored with 62 to put on 116 runs in a counterattacking partnership that gave SRH a chance.
However, SRH batting collapsed after the two departed, with fast bowlers Prince Yadav and Avesh Khan finishing with two wickets apiece to help Shami.
